LAb 3 - Neography - where all my favorite books take place

View My Favorite Books in a larger map

So I found using My Google Maps to be extremely easy to use, and the problem was not using it but rather of thinking things to put on the map!
I eventually decided to try to post locations of where my favorite books took place, which was an interesting project for me personally
as well since I could see in which areas of the world my literature focused on.

Neography as a whole can be very useful, especially when one is in an unfamiliar area or would like to create a visual representation of something
in the world that one cannot find a source of already. This allows for improvement and frequent updates by the people who know areas best. This allows
for easier travel planning and adventuring in areas with which you are unfamiliar or which you wish to discover something new. Also, it is much easier and
cheaper to access a map on the internet, which is the main way that neography is accessed, with this greater ease, people may locate things on the fly,
and quickly find anything they need - drugstores, points of interests, etc. and also it is cheaper than buying a map or travel guide for every area where
one would like to visit.

However, like most open sources of information on the internet, neography can be easily skewed and lead to misinformation. Without a strict authority checking
to make sure if the sources are indeed placed where it is correct, things may indeed be misrepresented. Also, it is easy to map private information that though available
on the internet already, may not have been looked at before put on a map (such as the Prop 8 map we saw in lecture). Also, by simply by leaving out points or adding too many
you can make the data appear in one or another.

Lab 2: USGS Topographic Maps

1. What is the name of the quadrangle?

Beverly Hills Quadrangle

2. What are the names of the adjacent quadrangles?
Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood , Venice, Inglewood

3. When was the quadrangle first created?
1966

4. What datum was used to create your map?
North American Datum 1983 (updated from 1927), and the National Geodetic Vertical Datum 1929

5. What is the scale of the map?
1: 24,000

6. At the above scale, answer the following:

a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to how many meters on the ground?
5 cm --> 120, 000 cm --> 1,200 M

b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground?
5 in --> 120,000 in --> 10,000 ft -->~1.89 mi

c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to how many inches on the map?
1 mi -->5280 ft --> 63360 in (total) --> 2.64 in (on the map)

d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map?
3 km --> 3000 M --> 300,000 cm (total) --> 12.5 cm (on the map)

7. What is the contour interval on your map?
20 Feet

8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of:

a) the Public Affairs Building;
34∘ 4'30" (32.75∘) and 118∘26'15" (118.4375∘)
b) the tip of Santa Monica pier;
34∘ 32" (34.0089∘) and 118 ∘30" (118.5∘)
c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir;
34∘7'10" (34.1194∘) and 118∘ 24' 30" (118.408∘)

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:

a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park); 570 ft (173.7 meters)

b) Woodlawn Cemetery; 135 ft (41.15 meters)

c) Crestwood Hills Park; 710 ft (216.4 meters)

10. What is the UTM zone of the map?
Zone 11

11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map
3763000 Northing and 361100E


12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?
1,000,000 sq meters (1000 by 1000 meters)

13.


14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?
Magnetic N - Geographic N = 13∘12"
15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon
Reservoir?
Flows from North to South

16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as a graphic on your blog.

Lab 1: Find 3 cool maps

Map 1: Obesity in America



This is a shot of a map that I pulled from boingboing.com, and in fact is supposed to be an animated map of obesity in America from 1985 until 2005. However, for whatever reason the link appears to be broken, but the image intact. This map defines obesity below the Key as when a person has a BMI greater than 30. I would venture to guess that this is in the 2000s, and maybe 2005, but unfortunately we can't see exactly where the bar is, but can judge by the fact that most of the states are in the orange/reds, and the later 2000s are the same color on the time line, that this map is around this time. What I find interesting about this map is that you can see that obesity is not equal across the whole US, and in fact appears to be clustered in the deep south (the most extreme cases in red, meaning that more than 25% of the population is obese), and makes its way up north and to the east, and also jumps up to Michigan. For me I expected more states with harsher winters to have greater obesity rates, such as Minnesota and the Dakotas, but I suppose the South has other factors including diet and lifestyle that have contributed to obesity in the area. Also it is intersting that the states with the lower rates of obesity (Utah, Montana, Colorado, and the New England area) are so spread apart, perhaps they have the lowest rates because they have smaller populations than the other states? or again is it other factors?

Map 2: Foreigners


I pulled this map from the National Geographic website, under the section "Earth Pulse". This map is actually interactive , and you can choose many different features to appear on this map, and one of the options (the one I chose) was % foreign born population (and this screen shot I took didn't come out very clear I'm afraid, but if you hit the link and then select the option "Percent Foregin Born" you may see it better). The areas that are the darkest shade of red (more than 15%) have the greatest percentage of foreigners in their country. It's interesting to see that Canada appears to have a higher percentage than the US, which is generally considered a melting pot of cultures! Also, Australia and New Zeland to have a high percentage as well, which I was not aware of, I know that originally when they were discovered the indigenous population was over powered by the British, but I was not aware that foreign-born people were still going over to live there. It also is very curious to see some areas that have the deep red also, such as Saudia Arabia/Gulf, but I suppose you could infer that the oil wealth there encourages internationals, or it may be in fact that its just persons from neighboring countries in the region, given the nomadic history of the region. But perhaps the most two curious cases for me are that of Kazakhstan and Gabon. I suppose Kazakhstan has oil or some other industry which attracts the foreigners, but I would need to do more research to understand why Gabon has such the highest foreign population in Africa.

Map 3: Shoes

This is a map of real time purchases from zappos.com, so while it is an interactive map, its still pretty cool to see which shoes are being bought where. From this you can learn the weather patterns of certain areas, the lifestyles, and also perhaps the purchaser's accessibility to a shoe store. Since the screen shot I've taken, I'm seeing more running shoes and sneakers being purchased on the west coast, while the East coast is stocking up on boots and heels. Also you can see in the screen shot someone from Salt lake city has bought a pair of boots and in NY someone has purchased a jacket. Also it seems that the Midwest is purchasing the most stuff as I watch the map in real time. Hopefully Zappos will compile this data soon, and one will not only be able to see the trends in fashion but also be able to judge the time of year etc.